


Aftermath

by Mystic_Girl_84_Blackness



Category: Casualty (TV), Holby City
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-17
Updated: 2018-03-17
Packaged: 2019-04-03 16:39:28
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,792
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14000247
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mystic_Girl_84_Blackness/pseuds/Mystic_Girl_84_Blackness
Summary: Hi Guys,This story is about Dom finding out some bad news with regards to Isaac. He goes home and is really angry. Unsuspecting Lofty gets a bit of a fright. Lofty visits ED during this story and is treated by Robyn and a suspicious Dylan. (I hope his not too out of character) Dom wants to make things and knows the only way to do it is to be honest about Isaac, so Lofty understand why he reacted like he did.Graphic depictions of injuries caused by Isaac, feelings, emotional abuse, anger. Darker than my general writing, but  nothing that should have you running for the hills. I had to re-watch some of the footage in order to try and accurately recreate the abuse as accurately as possible, which was a very unpleasant thing to do. The funniest thing I was into Holby at this point, but I think due to how distressing it was, most of the events have been locked away.Please, Please Review.





	Aftermath

A year on from leaving Isaac. Dom has a bad day. Lofty finally finds out what Isaac did to Dom. 

Dom came into his flat and slammed the door. Lofty who’d been lying on the sofa, half asleep jumped and peered over the sofa  
“Dom!” He said before settling his face into a smile  
“Is it so hard to move your shoes from the door?” Dom complained coming in  
“Uh...I thought I did” Lofty said getting up.  
Lofty saw Dom looking around the flat, and was thankful he’d spent an hour tidying up earlier. Dom went through this random phases when he got annoyed with mess. Normally after a tough day, Lofty reasoned. He then moved to put his shoes away, before moving to the kitchen  
“Coffee? Tea?” He asked hoping a hot beverage would calm Dom down  
“Go no. Do we have anything to drink?” Dom moaned  
“Um...no. You finished the beer yesterday” Lofty said  
“Couldn’t you have picked some up today, rather than just laying around?” Dom asked irritably  
“Well for one, I have been on a night shift so have spent most of the day sleeping and secondly you said yesterday ‘too many carbs in beer’ so no I didn’t get any today.” Lofty answered trying to remain calm. He took a closer look at Dom and could see that Dom was about to explode, but the biggest problem was that Dom would either get really angry, which to be honest it happened rarely but Lofty always felt uncomfortable dealing with anger or he’d get really emotional, which was easier to deal with but broke his heart every time.  
“Hot chocolate...options...oh we have Baileys” Lofty said remembering a friend had left some  
“That will have to do then” Dom said moodily  
Lofty and set about making it  
Dom still paced around the lounge area like a caged animal, which was putting Loft more on edge. He tried to keep everything steady, tried to remain calm but could feel his heartbeat increase as adrenalin seemed to take over. He didn’t think he had seen Dom this worked up since the steroid incident. He was certain he wasn’t still using anymore. He finished making the drinks and turned around, Just as Dom went into the bedroom  
“For fucks sake Lofty!” He bellowed storming out of the bedroom. 3 things happened at once, Lofty jumped, lost the grip on the mug which fell to the ground, causing Dom to walk right up into Lofty’s space, just as Lofty was about to pick it up and clean up.  
“Useless, Utterly useless slob” Dom yelled angrily, grabbing Lofty’s top, before pushing him slightly and letting him go. He hadn’t pushed hard, no harder than during the steroid incident but due to Lofty being off balance already he fell, his hand landing straight on an upturned broken piece of mug.

All things seemed to stop in that moment, Dom seemed to deflate immediately, his face turning to concern and guilt as he looked at Lofty’s hand, then Lofty’s face which looked really white. Dom recognised the signs of shock. He swept the rest of the ceramics away with his shoe,  
“Lofty you need to lie down” He said gently reaching out to put a hand on his shoulder and his heart broke as Lofty flinched from it slightly. Lofty used his good hand to pull himself up, before taking himself to lie on the sofa. Dom watched concerned as Lofty lay on the sofa, with his feet up on the end and his head flat.  
“Fuck, Lofty. I’m so sorry” Dom said looking at the chaos “Do you know if it went in deep?”  
As Dom looked he noticed Lofty had closed his eyes,  
“I don’t know, it doesn’t hurt that much...” Lofty said quietly  
That worried Dom, as if it was a shallow cut it would have hurt.  
“Shall we go to ED just in case, I think it might need stitches” Dom said quietly  
“Yeah, maybe” Lofty said equally as quiet  
Dom made to get his coat, “I’ll drive you”  
Lofty didn’t say much, he grabbed his coat plus the tea towel he’d pressed around it. Dom started the car and drove to Holby. As they arrived Lofty made a very quiet request  
“I’m fine. I’ll give you a call when I need picking up” Dom looked startled  
“I’ll come, I caused this mess” He said quietly  
“Please Dom, it’s easier this way” Lofty said quietly  
Dom watched concerned as Lofty got out of the car, before making his way over to ED. He watched Lofty be hugged by Robyn before being led into ED. It was the only perk of Lofty knowing the ED staff, he would hopefully get his treatment quickly. 

Inside ED

“What have you done?” Robyn asked noting the hand as Noel entered the information on the computer with a smile.  
“Clumsily broke a mug, while attempting to clean it up over balancing and landing on a chuck of it” Lofty said with a tired smile  
“Wow. You really are still a clutz” Robyn said good naturedly “Come on, your lucky. We are relatively quiet tonight...”  
“Robyn I’m going on my break soon...Ben” A familiar voice said  
“Hey Dylan” Lofty said with a small smile  
“What have you done?” Dylan asked  
“Managed to stab myself” Lofty said with a smile “OK Robyn, take him up for X-ray, when you've finished come back down and I’ll patch you up” Dylan said with a smile  
“What about the other patients?” Lofty asked worriedly  
“It will be on my break, won’t affect my crowd anyway” Dylan said confidently  
“You don’t have to...”  
“No arguing, now go” Dylan said and directed Lofty to X-ray  
“See being friends with a doctor comes in useful” Robyn said with a smile 

A short while later they came back, with an x-ray.  
“OK” Said Dylan looking at the results “well it went in at an awkward angle, which was why it missed an artery, It may make it harder to stitch though.” Dylan examined the X-ray.”We can remove then stitch.. Keep still” Dylan said as he removed the shard, the moment he did blood came out. Robyn applied the dressing, apologising when Lofty hissed  
“Sorry hun” Robyn said  
“Right lets clean, numb the area and stitch” Dylan said  
The whole job took less than 10 minutes with Dylan's quick and tidy stitch work.  
“Right Robyn can you dress it” Dylan said  
Lofty had remained relatively quiet during this time, seemingly lost in his thoughts which puzzled both Dylan and Lofty. Robyn quickly covered it with a dressing.  
“I’ve prescribed some painkillers just in case” Dylan said “I would recommend not using that hand for a few days and of course avoid getting it wet. Right I’m going for lunch, Robyn can get discharge papers and bring them to the staffroom. Come on Ben, you look like you need a sweet drink” Dylan said  
Lofty smiled gently before following Dylan  
As Dylan retrieved his lunch, he noticed Dylan still had the magnet Lofty had got him on his locker. He smiled at the thought.  
“So what’s going on? You’ve been in your whole head the whole time” Dylan said sitting down next to Lofty, bringing a sweet tea with him  
“Nothing really, just thinking” Lofty said quietly  
“Hmm...about how you actually got that cut?”  
“That was how it happened, I dropped the mug and you know what I am like...”  
“You also drop things when your nervous or jumpy” Dylan reminded him  
Lofty took a moment to look at Dylan  
“But I also do things like this anyway”  
“True, you can be clumsy...hows Keller treating you?”  
“Yeah I like it” Lofty said with a smile “Warm people, talkative patients”  
“Sounds like too much work” Said Dylan  
“I like it” Lofty said with a smile  
Just at that moment a knock came at the door and Robyn poked her head through the door  
“Hey Lofty, Dom’s asking for you” Dylan noticed Lofty’s expression shift slightly with interest. It was a brief flash of worry before returning to his normal expression.  
“I’ll send him down. He seemed awfully worried about you” Robyn said  
Lofty continued to sip from the warm cup of tea as Dom appeared by the door  
“Hey Lofty, I was waiting but then...” It was then he noticed a ginger haired doctor sitting in the room  
“Uh hi” He said nervously under the gaze of the older doctor  
“Dylan, this is my partner Dom, Dom this is Dylan an old friend from ED” Lofty introduced  
“Nice to meet you” Dom said venturing into the room, he cautiously sat a seat away from Lofty which Dylan noticed with interest rather than next to him  
“Ben’s just waiting for his meds, having a sweet drink then he can go if he wants” Dylan said  
“Good, that’s uh good” Dom answered  
Lofty smiled before excusing himself to use the facilities. Rejecting Dom’s help to come.  
Dom and Dylan sat awkwardly as Dylan got up to tidy away  
“Ben’s very much loved by ED, people miss him. We’re glad his returned to Holby...even though we think he should have returned here” Dylan said  
“Well Lofty decided to stay on the wards” Said Dom  
“I know. I may not understand a lot about peoples feelings, they are often irrelevant during treatment but I know when I see someone I care about hurt, I don’t like it. Especially when they aren't entirely honest about what happened, but Ben will have his reasons. I hope I don’t see him again as a casualty.” Dylan said without turning around “Did you know he was pushed through a glass screen once? He didn’t make a complaint against the man who did it. His selfless, and I know those kind of people can be taken advantage of. Don’t be one of those people Dr. Copeland”  
Dylan finished as Lofty came back in. Dom took a moment to think about what Dylan had said  
“I won’t” He answered firmly  
Lofty looked confused before finishing his tea  
“Right got the meds, lets go home” Lofty said overly brightly  
Dylan turned around at that moment as Ben went over to put his mug away  
“Don’t worry” Dylan said “If you want, you can come over for dinner again?”  
Lofty looked at Dylan and smiled before hugging Dylan. Dylan took a deep breath and before Lofty could let go, returned the hug timidly. Lofty smiled at this before whispering in his ear  
‘I’m fine. I promise.’  
Dylan quickly let go of Lofty, but didn’t miss Lofty’s beaming smile at him. It was the happiest Dylan had seen since he’d come in.  
“Come on Dom” Lofty said picking up his tablets and Dom followed him out of the room. 

They got back to the car, and Lofty still had a smile on his face. Dom couldn’t recall the last time he’d seen Lofty smile in such a genuine carefree way. As he started to car and they drove away from the hospital, Lofty’s stopped his expression being scarily neutral. When they arrived Lofty got out of the and went upstairs, Dom following him quietly. When they went in Lofty carefully placed his shoes in the shoe rack, noting the spill had been cleaned. He took a seat on the sofa  
“Do you want anything?” Dom asked from the kitchen  
“Just water, so I can take these tablets.” Lofty said popping a couple of painkillers  
Dom did as was instructed and watched Lofty take them.  
“I’m sorry Lofty” Dom said reaching out to gently take Lofty’s good hand “I am so sorry I acted like that, it’s not excuse, I had some bad news today and I took it out on you. I never...I mean you know how much I oppose violence of any type”  
“I just, I know it wasn’t done on purpose, it was done out of frustration but it still hurts to be on the receiving end. I thought..well I thought things were getting better” Lofty said quietly  
“I know, I just...I’m not in a good place right now” Dom said honestly  
“Tell me what happened” Lofty asked  
“I got a call from CPS today, Isaac has been released on parole for good behaviour” Dom said quietly “A year after I was rid if him, he got off. He had conditions of course, one of which is he is not allowed anywhere near me or the hospital unless of an unavoidable emergency”  
“Oh Dom” Lofty said gesturing Dom to sit next to him which Dom did willingly, looking down at his hands  
“I know you know about him, I know you know about some of the things he did, bur you don’t know how much”  
“Tell me what you can” Lofty compromised  
“I want to tell you everything, but I’m scared, not of re living it but of you knowing everything that happened”  
“Look Dom, knowing someone hurt you upset me in the beginning, I know it will upset but I know it will also help me understand you better. Please tell me. You can’t scare me off”  
Dom took a deep breath and looked at Lofty, Lofty could see him struggling.  
“Lay on your side, head on my lap” He instructed softly “turn and face the TV so your not looking at me”  
“Can you?” Dom asked quietly  
Lofty shrugged and did as he was asked, Dom gently ran a hand through his hair, feeling calmer already  
“Arthur’s death was hard. It really hurt me. I thought I was coping but I was broken. Then Isaac appeared, this smart, grown up, attractive doctor who was interested in me. He took me to dinner, we ate at expensive places, he had his own flat and lived alone...all those things appealing to me. I’ve never felt that grown up, but with Isaac I did. This was a proper adult relationship. It was passionate, and loving so I thought at that time. My Dad even met him, and he well he never liked my sexuality but even he liked Isaac. I thought I had found the one, you know. The abuse...well it was subtle at first, I didn’t even notice it...I was to eat certain things, it was to help with my weight, and not drink beer as it was really fattening. Wine was OK in moderation. On Valentines day before anything got physical he brought me a magazine of beefy men and a set of dung bells, hence my reaction when I thought that was your gift. He began...began to get physical on the 28th March, He kicked me in the chest on my left side, and fractured my ribs. I remember going off at Zosia because I thought she had never liked him, never wanted me to be happy. Slowly I was isolated from my friends. On the 31st March he pushed me so hard I chipped a tooth. On the 5th April I received an injury on left dorsal and finally on the 9th April I received an a punch in the face, which caused a decompression of my eye socket.” At this point he stopped stroking Lofty’s head and felt Lofty gripping his trousers leg uncomfortably tight, and the tell tale sign of Lofty trying to contain his tears.  
“Hey, Hey, Don’t worry. I’m safe” Dom reassured him leaning forward to gently kiss his head “Do you want me to stop?”  
Lofty took a moment to answer,  
“Only if you want to” Lofty answered shakily as he tried to get up, but Dom gently applied pressure  
“Please stay like this, I...it helps” Dom confessed Lofty stayed still however he reached around with his good hand and gripped Dom’s hand gently. Dom squeezed back reassuringly  
“That was the last time, I tried to approach him about getting help, after finding a leaflet Hansen had put in my locker, in his anger he shoved me against the wall, I..he held my hands, twisted my arm, he really thought he didn’t have a problem and shoved me into the wall. I suddenly had the urge to fight back and freed myself, all that gym work paid off in a way. I took a step back and fell down a flight of stairs...it came to an end. I told my friends. I was so lucky they hadn’t given up on me. Zosia and Essie both had tried to convince me before, even Zosia and Hansen was on my side too. I know I recovered from the injuries, I had bruises when you arrived but I think what got me, was the emotional abuse. He said I was broke, that he fixed me. That this was a grown up relationship. It was passionate. He claimed he built me up. One time Kyle, an ex appeared with his new boyfriend. Kyle he was lovely, you know. So much like you. He was kind, and decent. But I had messed that relationship up. I thought Isaac might be threatened, but he laughed. I think Kyle saw something though, he couldn’t have known but he was like you, saw beyond the obvious. Isaac actually asked me if I was scared of him at one point, and I stupidly said ‘sometimes’. I’d hope being honest would encourage him to get help because he loved me. Then just before the final confrontation, Sacha, Essie and Zosia cornered me about it. I lied, I didn’t want to admit it. Of course it got back to Isaac. That was when I was shoved against the wall. He was so strong. I still remember feeling that wall against my face. He said...I don’t even want to repeat it, but I suddenly felt this strength and I pushed back, I freed myself...only to end up falling down the stairs. But then it was over, everyone knew.” Dom finished feeling very exposed “But after he hurt me each time, he was so nice, took me out or got me gifts or said he loved me, or promised he’d never do it again and I wanted to believe it every single time. He broke Arthur’s medals yo know, that Arthur left me. He hated it when I spoke about Arthur. He hated my friends. I forgave him for it, every time. Those medals mean more to me than anything ever has and that was pretty much what I let him do to everything.”  
Lofty took this moment to slowly push himself up, and Dom saw ushered tears in his eyes, laced with anger. Not that anger that Lofty had shown, when it was about his Gran and Dom wasn’t worried. He knew who the anger was aimed at. Lofty repositioned himself so he was in Dom’s lap before pulling him into a hug, a bone crushing hug. Dom melted into the hug. He pulled Lofty closer, both feeling the need to be closer as Lofty wrapped his arms around Dom’s neck  
“I’m sorry you went through that” Lofty said “It breaks my heart that someone did that to you, someone you loved, someone you trusted”  
“I’m sorry I lost it with you, I saw, I saw the look of fear in your eyes Lofty. I am sorry I put that there. I know what its like to be scared of someone, but I promise, not an empty promise, that won’t happen again. I love you, I love you so much” Dom said kissing Lofty  
“I know..and at least...well you recognised a problem and sought help which was a really brave thing to do” Lofty said with a small smile  
“So now you know, now you know how...damaged I was to tolerate that abuse, to not listen to my friends even though I knew they were telling the truth...”  
“He targeted you Dom. You were a victim. I know you don’t like that word, but you are also a survivor” Lofty said  
He and Dom were as close as physically possibly, fully clothed.  
“Your friend from ED, Dylan seemed worried...”  
“He cares, don’t worry. I am still startled he hugged me back” Lofty said with a dopey grin  
“He’s never hugged you before?” Dom said “How is that possible?” Genuinely bewildered how no one could return a Lofty hug. Granted sometimes they were awkward but you always returned a Lofty hug.  
“He did it to make a point to me, didn’t he?” Dom mused  
“A point?” Lofty enquired  
“Yes he said you were loved, he wanted me to know...that you were important, that you had friends, that would no doubt come to your aid. Oh my god you don’t think it will spread through the hospital?” Dom said  
“Dylan’s a very private person. No doubt I will be closely observed next time I go over, but he has nothing to worry about, which I told him”  
“Maybe I should have been honest, I mean it was an accident?” Dom said  
“Don’t worry,” Lofty reassured him “I’ll set him straight. I think I was still in shock to be honest”  
“You had every right to be,” Dom reassured him “I do however think it’s time for bed, you can barely keep your eyes open”  
“It’s those meds, typical Dylan,” Lofty said “Come on, your coming with me”  
“Let me just lock up” Dom said  
Dom double locked the door, put on the chain and the catch. Lofty watched from the sofa but didn’t say anything. Dom was allowed to be a little paranoid.  
“I just...need us safe” Dom said when he saw Lofty looking at him  
Lofty just smiled sadly and nodded. They both walked into the bedroom, and got undressed before getting into bed. Lofty pulled Dom into a cuddle  
“Hey I wanted to cuddle you” Dom pouted  
“I need to hold you,” Lofty said matter of factly squeezing Dylan tight  
Dylan mock sighed before rolling over so his head was cocooned against Lofty’s chest listening to his heart beat  
“Lofty?” Dom asked quietly  
“Hmm...” Lofty answered sleepily  
“What am I going to do about Isaac?” Dom asked  
“Deal with it tomorrow.” Lofty said pulling Dom even closer,  
“Your...not going anywhere, are you?” Dom asked timidly  
“I’m staying here, with you. Whatever you decide, we’re together in this” Lofty confirmed  
Dom and Lofty snuggled in. Both knew they would talk more tomorrow when they had processed events, and Dom knew Isaac wasn’t entirely over, but he knew that as long as he had Lofty, Lofty would keep him safe, and in return, he would keep Lofty safe. As long as they stood together, nothing could tear them apart.


End file.
